Mingo County, West Virginia

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Below the state median: Median household income runs $21,489 (36.1%) under the West Virginia median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 10.5% below the national average, so the nominal median of $38,119 is worth $42,591 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 32.4%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 26.2 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 44 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction employs 1,152 workers (44.1% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $114,792. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,099 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $968M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction averages $114,792 while Retail Trade averages $27,351, a 4.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Gasoline Stations and Fuel Dealers concentrates at 3.49x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 6 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 44.5% of the employment across them, the largest being health care economy. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.4x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 73.4% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 19.4% of housing units are vacant, above the West Virginia rate of 15.4%, and up from 18.3% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 77.5% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 9.7%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 9.7% of the vacant stock, or 1.9% of all housing units against the 19.4% headline vacancy rate. Absorbable supply for an incoming employer is thin, and the gap between the two is the redevelopment and conversion opportunity.
• Rent affordability gap: None of the 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $20,369 can pay without cost burden (~$509/mo), and 29% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 16.1% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Succession risk is real: 25.4% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 35.9% labor force participation. The labor force itself fell 21.3% between 2019 and 2024, from 8,282 to 6,518.
• Talent pipeline: 1 institution in Mingo County awards 14 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Mingo County shows meaningful potential for gasoline stations and fuel dealers attraction, with a 3.49x concentration and 106 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 25.4% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans gasoline stations and fuel dealers, social assistance, and heavy and civil engineering construction, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 44.5% of the employment across them, the largest being health care economy. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.